Last summer I read about the Method of 10,000 Sentences for achieving foreign language proficiency and decided to apply it to Finnish. So I wrote a small app to keep things organized, began downloading the 30 or so sentences posted each day at Yle Uutiset Selkosuomeksi (along with the accompanying audio MP3), and concentrated on being able to read, write, speak, and hear each sentence with complete understanding.

Well, I reached a milestone today: I've just downloaded the 5000 sentence!

5000 sentences learned out of 10,000: I guess I'm officially a FSL (Finnish as a Second Language) halfwit now.

"So, does the Method of 10000 Sentences really work?", you ask. Well, within the reduced vocabulary and relatively simple grammar of Yle Uutiset Selkosuomeksi, definitely. My reading comprehension is probably >90%; my listening skills are not far behind; and spelling, grammar, and ability to write coherently have vastly improved. I've still got a way to go - my brain still stumbles during conversation as it is tries to form and pronounce grammatically correct sentences in real-time, and colloquial Finnish is still quite the challenge. But compared to where I was last August when I started? Night and day.

Of course, you're so nice and you're gonna share the app with us, right?

A number of you have wondered if I am nice and if I would make my app available. Well, I am nice and I will make it available if I can figure out a practical way to do it. The entire program, including audio files, is currently about 1GB (95% are the audio files) and growing daily - too large to send via email or make available for download through my website or FTP server as my ISP's bandwidth restrictions won't allow it. Ideas?

I should also point out that the app is not a stand-alone .exe. It is coded in VBA and you will need Microsoft Excel running on a PC to use it. I have no idea if it will run on Apple.

The easiest way would be to create a free Google Drive account (you should automatically have one if you have Gmail). You can upload it there as a zip/7z file (Google Drive free account has 15 GB free space), then right click and choose "Share" then "Anyone with the link". Then you simply post the link here or send it to members who ask for it.That way, the bandwidth burden will be shifted to Google and you don't have to worry about availability.

Another, a bit more complicated (but a lot more awesome) solution is to host the source code on GitHub (yay for open source) and host the audio files on Google Drive, and put a link to the audio files in your GitHub's README file. This has the advantage of people improving your application and adding new stuff, pending your approval of course.

Every f*cking application is unique.You can't measure the result of your application based on random anecdotes online. Stop being a moron!

adnan wrote:Another, a bit more complicated (but a lot more awesome) solution is to host the source code on GitHub (yay for open source) and host the audio files [ ... somewhere else ... ], and put a link to the audio files in your GitHub's README file. This has the advantage of people improving your application and adding new stuff, pending your approval of course.

Well, since my app makes use of Google Translate, I suppose it's only fair that I give up some personal information in exchange for that service and some free cloud storage on their servers. I'll sign up for a Google Drive account this weekend, upload the files, and post a link to the app soon after.

I need to fix a few bugs, cleanup the code a bit, and put together a short User's Guide first, but I'll try to make 10.000 Virkettä v1.0 available for download on Monday.

BTW, as I mentioned previously, the app is coded in VBA for Excel. As such, the code is embedded in the .xlsx file and accessible to anyone wanting to modify or add to it. Unfortunately, I did not follow good programming practices. Comments are far and few between and figuring out the how's and why's of what's under the hood could be challenging. But if you can figure it out, go for it!

Rekkari wrote:Well, since my app makes use of Google Translate, I suppose it's only fair that I give up some personal information in exchange for that service and some free cloud storage on their servers. I'll sign up for a Google Drive account this weekend, upload the files, and post a link to the app soon after.

I need to fix a few bugs, cleanup the code a bit, and put together a short User's Guide first, but I'll try to make 10.000 Virkettä v1.0 available for download on Monday.

BTW, as I mentioned previously, the app is coded in VBA for Excel. As such, the code is embedded in the .xlsx file and accessible to anyone wanting to modify or add to it. Unfortunately, I did not follow good programming practices. Comments are far and few between and figuring out the how's and why's of what's under the hood could be challenging. But if you can figure it out, go for it!

You will need Microsoft Excel (the app is coded in VBA for Excel and uses the spreadsheet for the database) and you might get a security warning about macros when you launch the application. I promise that there isn't any sinister code lurking under the hood and you can allow the code to run with confidence.

This is really a beta version so download, unzip, read the readme.txt and try it out. The dictionary feature is not completely ready for prime time but is mostly functional.

Let me know if you find any errors in the text (they should be correct because they are 99.9% direct cut-and-pastes from Yle Uutiset Selkosuomeksi.

I'll post updates with bug fixes, new features (maybe), and additional sentences with audio in the weeks ahead.

Just downloading the app now and will give you some feedback but it sounds like an awesome tool you created there and thanks very much for sharing.

I've always loved the idea of creating an open source language learning repository as after being in a few classes I find learning from people who have already learned the language is a lot easier than the way many teachers approach it.

I found a couple of minor bugs in it already myself, all related to the dictionary's logic and corrected in v1.01.

I also noticed that the readme.txt file's interpretation of white space characters (space, tab, etc.) has left the text a bit messy and probably difficult to follow. Hopefully the jist of what the buttons do is still intact. I'll work on an improved version...one of these days.

I should've also mentioned that the built-in dictionary is initially empty. You (the user) build and maintain your own custom sanasto as you come across words and phrases that you find interesting. The topmost text box is where you will enter the actual word from one of the sentences. The basic form of that word is then entered at the top of the large text box (it will be in bold), and the definition is entered just below that. For example:

keräneetkerätäto gather, collect

Keep me posted on other issues and I'll do my best to fix/improve/update them.